“The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan talks about how the American dream back then was women loving the idea of only being housewives just staying home to take care of the children. Back then it was a normal thing for the woman to take care of things around the house while the men went out and worked to bring home the money. To me this just proves how women were seen as less than men. The men were able to go out, have careers and do whatever they wanted to do while the women stood home and cleaned up after them.
Betty mentions something called “The problem” which had no name but to me it was the women realizing that this is not all they want to do with their lives. She mentions “she was afraid to ask even the silent question – “is this all”. Although the feline mystique made it seem like women loved only doing housework, I think we all know that some part of them definitely wanted to do more with their lives like have a career or hobbies.
“The Politics of Housework” by Pat Mainardi is something that talks about how men expect women to be the ones who do all the housework and care for the children. For example Pat says “Housework is garbage work. It’s the worst crap I’ve ever done. It’s degrading and humiliating for someone of my intelligence to do it. But for someone of your intelligence….”. She also mentions “House work is beneath my status. My purpose in life is to deal with matters of significance. Yours is to deal with matters of insignificance. You should do the housework”. This shows how men during this time thought they were too good to do housework, probably because they were the ones who were paying the bills. Men thought they were more important or seen on a higher rank than women so stuff that required cleaning and stuff was seen as not worth their time.
I don’t get how men probably loved coming home to everything taken care of around the house but l never really acknowledge the hard work and time it took their woman to get it done. Men are the type to like to get praised for the job they do but when it comes to women doing stuff around the house they probably see it as something we were supposed to do so we didn’t deserve any praise or thank you.
The myth of the vaginal by Anne Koedt was something I found very interesting to read especially since I am female. It talks about how the clitoris is the center of sexual sensitivity and is what causes us to have orgasms. Many men believe that women are incapable of having orgasms during sexual intercourse which is false. It is just the fact that the vagina isn’t a highly sensitive area and the clit is often not stimulated which is why many women do not have orgasms during sexual intercourse.
When Freud said “the clitoral orgasm was adolescent, and that upon puberty, when women began having sexual intercourse with men, women should transfer the center of orgasm to the vagina” I found that a little weird. I don’t get how he just expects us to just transfer the spot that causes us to have orgasms just because he thinks of the clit as childish and the vagina more adult like. What made it even more weird was that it mentioned that he did not base his theory off of the study of the woman anatomy but based off of his assumptions of woman as an inferior appendage to man.
I really liked Emely D’s snapshot because it says “There are other rooms in this house” as a woman stands in the kitchen doing dishes. To me it basically represents how women back then were only ever known to be in the kitchen either cleaning or cooking for their family and really didn’t do anything else with their time.
